The Astonishing Adventures
by spider lillies
Summary: In which Julie gains some new persceptive - and a lesson in mechanics - courtesy of Kevin. Platonic, eventually romantic, Kevin/Julie. In-Progress.
1. Post Redemption Depression

After the final fight with the DNAliens, time passes quickly, days bleeding into weeks like watercolors with only the occasional mission to break them up.

Ben and Gwen spend a lot of time with their Grandpa, training the Plumbers' kids and catching up, and just reveling in the fact that he came back to them. Kevin helps out when he can, but they soon discover that he and Manny agitate each other too often to be productive, so it's just better if he comes and goes. He keeps busy with maintaining their remaining Plumber tech, working on his new car, and hunting for Darkstar.

Without any missions to tag along on and the others always busy, Julie finds herself similarly purposeless. She watches a lot of sci-fi movies and goes on night rides with Ship to fill the void.

Summer comes, and one day they run into each other at the Mr. Smoothy. Julie's dragging her bike beside her, having punctured her tire a block back and thinking that she would need a cool drink for the long walk home.

She gives him exact change for his mango concoction, and Kevin surprises them both by offering to drive her to his garage and patch her tire (and mentally adds a note to oil her chain and pump her other tire, because he can see from here that her ride is in sorry condition, and that always puts the "fix-it" itch in him). She tries to turn him down, but he just picks up her bike and places it in his trunk. It's no trouble; he likes to mess around with anything wheeled anyway.

A quick patch-job and some routine maintenance turns into a lesson on how to change the oil in a car. Kevin doesn't really know how that happens, just that Julie keeps asking him questions about his car while he's fixing her bike, and at first he thinks that she's just trying to make awkward small talk, but then he actually looks at her and she seems genuinely interested.

Well, he can't help but give in to her request for him to show her what's what under the hood...

Before Julie knows it, she's up to her elbows in grease (because Kevin says that there's no point in him teaching her if she doesn't actually do it herself), and when she goes to absentmindedly rub at her face, Kevin grabs her wrist and hands her a cloth to use instead.

"That'll burn like hell if it gets in your eyes," he warns, and suddenly all she can think is that his hands are strong and warm.

* * *

**A/n:** I...I blame kitsunexmaxwell for this. I really do. Yes, this is going somewhere. Maybe.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Ben 10: Alien Force.


	2. Julie Knew It

He doesn't see her a lot after that - only when she comes by with Ship now and then to watch the others, or give him to Ben for babysitting duty - and the few times he does, their talk is no longer small, going from asking about the car and Ship and the latest mission she missed, to about each other. Ben and Gwen are right there, but their mentions of them quickly grow few and far in-between.

Finally, he swallows his nerve and says it:

"I can give you a ride home if you want. Or go get a smoothie, whatever." He thinks he just tried and failed at being nonchalant, and how she doesn't see right through him is anyone's guess.

She looks at him quizzically for a moment, like she didn't catch it (and for one awful moment he thinks he'll have to find a way to repeat all of that), before she smiles and suddenly all he can think is that now he knows why Ben used to talk about her all the time.

"Okay, but only if there's room in your car for Ship."

---

He doesn't give her his number or take her anywhere special or even really _do _any typical guy-girl things with her, but she still stays in the back of his mind. One random smoothie run turns into a regular thing - just him and her and sometimes Ship - and one night just for variety's sake, he takes her to the burger joint on the way to her place and pays for both of them without even thinking about it.

"We're going to have to tell them sometime," Julie says as she swirls a fry in her chocolate shake - classic junk food combo, he's not surprised that it's one of her favorites. She can be so laid back, yet still so...girly, that it's both refreshing and intimidating.

"About what?" He bites off a large hunk of his hamburger, and it barfs mustard onto his shirt. Of course it does.

"About your undying love for me," she teases, and looks up just in time to see Kevin choke.

She laughs - "I knew it."

"You don't even know how to oil a bike chain," he grumbles, swiping a napkin from the dispenser for his shirt and a fry from her basket for his shake.

* * *

**A/n:** F-me if I know where this is going. That's it, I'm putting in gratuitous Ben/Gwen hints.

(**Disclaimer:** I don't own Ben 10.)


End file.
